Mayor Sets Precautions

Jittery Mood Follows Boston Explosions

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Stranded passengers wait with their luggage on the airport roadway after authorities evacuated the central terminal at La Guardia Airport on Tuesday. The evacuation was due to a suspicious package found in the marketplace area of the terminal. The package was later deemed harmless.
Kevin Hagen for The Wall Street Journal

By

Tamer El-Ghobashy and

Ted Mann

April 16, 2013 10:40 p.m. ET

A day after the Boston Marathon bombings, New York City officials said they were evaluating their approach to securing similar events even as scares at major transit hubs and widespread reports of unattended packages reflected a jittery mood across the city.

Mayor
Michael Bloomberg
sought Tuesday to assure New Yorkers that his administration was taking visible precautions—a dramatically increased police presence and searches of large parcels—to secure the city's transportation network and popular landmarks.

"We won't let the attack in Boston keep us from our normal daily routines or enjoying the city that we love and that we so painstakingly built. I took the subway this morning, along with millions of other New Yorkers on their way to work," said Mr. Bloomberg, who spoke against a City Hall backdrop that featured the Boston city flag. "Let's not forget what happened in the past and let's prepare for the future."

ENLARGE

A police K-9 unit dog sniffs newspaper boxes for explosives outside of Penn Station on Tuesday as security measures were intensified.
Getty Images

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Still, the explosions in Boston appeared to have triggered several scares Tuesday: La Guardia Airport's main terminal was temporarily evacuated after an unattended parcel was found; and subways were stopped or diverted after the discoveries of suspicious packages.

New York Police Commissioner
Raymond Kelly
said Tuesday that "there are no specific threats against" the city, but added that the department was prepared for a wave of citizen calls reporting suspicious activity. He said in the 24 hours since the Boston incidents, the city had fielded 77 reports of suspicious packages, compared with 21 in the same 24-hour period last year.

"The public was doing what we asked them to do," he said. "So we prepared for that, we increased our emergency service officers on patrol, and we increased our bomb-squad resources."

Mr. Kelly said the police department's posture since the Boston bombings reflects the "standard operating procedure" following major incidents since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He said the open nature of Monday's event in Boston, which was staged along public streets with various "points of vulnerability," underscored the importance of frequently re-evaluating how the department approaches security at large public gatherings.

The NYPD has sent two sergeants to Boston to participate in the "information flow" between local and federal authorities there, Mr. Kelly said.

"We try not to have a security plan that looks exactly like it did" for previous events, Mr. Kelly said. "We don't want to necessarily fight yesterday's war, we want to take a fresh look."

Changes could include how the NYPD deploys officers and vehicles, he said, and adjustments to the rules for gatherings such as the New York City Marathon, which is scheduled for Nov. 3. In the short term, the department is evaluating its security plan for two events planned for Sunday—a 5-kilometer run to the Sept. 11 memorial and a four-mile race in Central Park.

While Mr. Kelly said the races wouldn't be canceled, he said "we are certainly evaluating, or re-evaluating them, in light of the event that took place" in Boston.

In a statement, Mary Wittenberg, the president and chief executive of the New York Road Runners, the group that stages the marathon, said: "The safety and security of all New York Road Runners' races is and will always be our top priority. We will continue to work hand in hand with the city of New York and the NYPD as we plan for upcoming events."

Mr. Kelly said the most visible police presence in response to Monday's attacks would be at subways, hotels, houses of worship and landmarks such as the Empire State Building.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he was directing 230 National Guard troops to New York City to support Metropolitan Transportation Authority police and the NYPD in guarding landmarks, including bus and rail stations, airports, and the city's tunnels.

In the subways, police have been posted to check bags as passengers enter the system, Mr. Kelly said. Evening commuters passed through Pennsylvania Station under the watch of officers with bomb-sniffing dogs, a show of force that offered comfort to some commuters.

"I had a little doubt about coming in today but there are police everywhere," said Diane Mirasola, 60 years old, of Hauppauge, Long Island. "They make me feel safe. And you know, you can't let the terrorists stop you."

The morning commute was disrupted by several reports of suspicious packages.

The Brighton line, which carries B and Q trains through southern Brooklyn, was closed for an hour Tuesday morning after a report of a suspicious package near the Avenue H subway stop. An MTA spokesman said the package was cleared by the NYPD, but not without a full stop of nearly one-half of the B express line during the morning, and the rerouting of the Q.

A short time later, another scare: an unattended bag on the third floor of the Central Terminal Building at La Guardia Airport, a spot overlooking a food court outside the security barriers. The bag triggered an evacuation of most of the people in the terminal, forcing several hundred passengers to wait outside.

The investigation delayed eight incoming flights and 19 outbound ones by an average of 50 minutes, a Port Authority spokeswoman said, before authorities determined the bag contained only pieces of a light fixture.

In Times Square, where at least a dozen NYPD Critical Response Vehicles massed, officers patrolled the area on foot. They occasionally stopped passersby with large backpacks for inspection and peered inside garbage cans.

The surge in police unnerved some tourists. "You hear sirens, and police cars and you just worry, you become a little uneasy," said Linda Bensley, a 53-year-old visitor from Australia. "They say it's safe but you think, 'How secure can it be when there are so many people everywhere?'"

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